Five sodomy accused let off, court pulls up cops for ‘lapse’

Mumbai: A special Prevention of Child from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO) court has acquitted five accused, who were arrested in the sodomy and murder case of a five-year-old boy. The court while acquitting them held that of the five, three accused had given confessed before the police on how they had sodomised the victim and crammed polythene in his mouth. However, the police had not recorded the statements before the magistrate, otherwise it would have helped the prosecution link the accused to the said offence.

According to the prosecution, in June 2014, at about 6.30 pm, a student of the nearby Hinduja college, along with his friend had gone to Marine Drive near Chowpatty. While taking photographs, the boys had seen a body floating in the sea. Along with the lifeguard, they had removed the said body from the sea, which was then taken to Saifee Hospital. The D.B. Marg police had registered an accidental death report and recorded the statement of students and lifeguard. After panchanama, the body was sent to J.J. Hospital for Postmortem, where the doctor said that the child’s death had occurred due to choking and anal injuries. Since the case fell under the jurisdiction of the Marine Lines police station, the case was transferred to them.

Investigation officer of Marine Lines police then started searching for the relatives of the deceased child. He had even got the new published in the newspaper as well as in the public gazette. However, since they couldn’t find the relatives of the deceased child, they conducted his funeral.